This sheet replicates a composition invented by Guglielmo della Porta (fl. 1534, d. 1577) as part of a series of sixteen designs for 8 oval and 8 octagonal plaquettes, which were cast in bronze by Guglielmo and his assistant, Jan Cornelisz. Cobbaert (or Cobbe), around 1575. These plaquettes devoted to the exploits of the gods proved popular and gave rise to copies by a wide range of artists. The Metropolitan Museum of Art preserves a set of drawings after the oval reliefs attributed to an artist in the circle of Bernard Picart (but sold in 1950 as by Benvenuto Cellini).
This particular scene contains episodes from Ovid's Metamorphoses including the drunken Silenus at right and Apollo and Daphne in the left background. The choppy execution, rough shading, and misunderstood passages indicate the artist was working from the bronze relief and not from Guglielmo's original design.
Inscribed in pen and brown ink, at upper right corner, "Verdier"; numbered on verso, in graphite (modern hand), "19".
Watermark: Letter "W" surmounted by a "4", placed in between chain lines.
Muensterberger, Werner, Mrs., former owner.
Pierpont Morgan Library. Review of Acquisitions, 1949-1968. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1969, p. 174.
Adams, Frederick B., Jr., ed. Fifteenth Report to the Fellows of the Pierpont Morgan Library, 1967 & 1968. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1969, p. 108.